The US Approves the World’s First Vaccine for Honeybees for Conditional Use

The importance of bees to mankind is beyond measure. Their pollination activity generates food for all. So it is imperative to take measures to stop the decline in the bee population. Earlier this week, a biotech company said that the USDA (Department of Agriculture) had given them a conditional license for their honeybee vaccine. The vaccination strengthens the bee's immune system to combat American foulbrood disease, a bacterial infection that is brought on by Paenibacillus larvae and is known to harm colonies. Until now, the only option for treating the highly contagious illness was to burn the bees, the contaminated hives, and all the associated equipment. When all the worker bees have consumed the vaccine, it is then absorbed into the royal jelly, which is fed to the queen. Fragments of the vaccine are deposited in her ovaries when she consumes it. The growing larvae have immunity when they hatch because they have been exposed to the vaccination. Dr. Annette Kleiser, CEO of Dalan Animal Health said in a statement that their vaccine is a breakthrough in protecting honeybees, impacting food production on a global scale. Trevor Tauzer, owner of Tauzer Apiaries and board member of the California Beekeepers Association remarked that this was an exciting step forward for beekeepers as they had to rely on antibiotic treatment that had limited effectiveness and required lots of time and energy to apply to the hives.

Honeybees are making a comeback

The dwindling honeybee population was a cause of concern in North America and Europe as it is a critical component to agricultural production, but not anymore because according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture honey bee health survey, the number of US honeybees has increased in 2017. Their decreasing count was attributed to a mysterious malady that affected their hives. The Agriculture Department reported that as of April 1, 2017, honey bee colonies rose 3 percent to 2.89 million. Beekeepers rue that mites were harming the bee hives while pesticides and other factors also cause stress to bees. Tim May, a beekeeper in Harvard, Illinois and the vice-president of the American Beekeeping Federation based in Atlanta said that they check the hives for mites and keep the bees well fed. They also ask farmers not to spray pesticides when their hives are vulnerable. Environmental groups had raised concerns about the decline in the population of pollinators, from wild bees to monarch butterflies. A study conducted by the USDA stated that beekeepers have reported the most losses from the varroa mite, a parasite that lives only in beehives and survives by sucking insect blood. The scourge that affected the bee hives came down to 42 percent from 53 percent last year.